"Hurry up, if I don't see you packing up and entering the river before, you won't want to have lunch today!"

In the early morning, in the midst of shouting and scolding, thousands of Kunlun people got up from the humble wooden beds tiredly.

They walked outside the tent, and outside it was a tropical scene.

Tropical vegetation and a river three or four feet wide and four or five feet deep make up this humble camp.

In the camp, a flag was hung with the words "Ariake Joseon" written on it.

The entire camp was surrounded by hundreds of Korean soldiers in iron armor, and inside the camp were nearly 2,000 defeated and captured Kunlun people.

Soon, the two jars of gruel were opened, and more than 2,000 people began to line up to drink the gruel.

When the gruel was finished, they were driven down the riverbed by North Korean soldiers, using rudimentary tools to pan for gold in the river.

While they were panning for gold, a man in the camp dressed as a Korean military attache walked out of one of the few wooden houses in the camp, he glanced at the group of Kunlun people, and then said to another military attache next to him with disgust:

"The speed of these Kunlun slaves panning for gold is too slow, more than 2,000 people, they can only get ten taels of gold a day, and a maximum of 3,650 taels a year, but Yu Hou set us 4,000 taels, if they pan for gold too slowly, we will not only fail to complete the task, but also make no money."

"In a few days, just send troops and catch some slaves, if two thousand don't work, three thousand, five thousand!" The military attache next to him continued:

"Anyway, it only takes three hundred taels of gold to feed a thousand people, and the cost of five thousand people is one thousand five hundred taels."

"That's what I thought too." The other military attache nodded, and began to inspect the camp.

In the early period of the founding of the DPRK, the military system was dominated by the five-guard system, which were Yixingwei, Longxiangwei, Hubenwei, Chungzuowei and Zhongmuwei, which were huge.

In normal times, the five guards take turns to take on the task of palace guards.

During the war, the five guards went to the front to fight.

The five-guard system is a military system that integrates soldiers and peasants, and its subordinate personnel are peasants in peacetime and soldiers in wartime, and the soldiers are self-sufficient in food, clothing, weapons and other materials, and the state has no financial burden to raise soldiers.

This set is obviously the Central Plains system of learning, but when the Ming military guard maintained soldiers for a long time, North Korea did not maintain soldiers, so from the Hongwu period, the combat strength of the Korean army that had been peaceful for a long time was declining, and it was almost a luxury for military attachés to obtain military merits.

In this situation, with the opening of the Great Voyage, the gold rush in Kunlun became a reality, and Li Fangyuan, who was rewarded, immediately sent an army to follow Zheng He to the Western Ocean, and explored inland after arriving at the Ma Lindi.

From 1,000 at the beginning, to 5,000 now......

The Korean army in Kunlun was growing day by day, and the number of rivers and slaves under its control was increasing.

In the intricate hinterland of Kunlun Continent, at present, the seven families of Daming Jiangnan, Fujian and Zhejiang, including the Qian family and the Zheng family, are on one side, North Korea is on the side, and Champong, Sulu, Manraka and other countries are on the side.

The three forces continue to go inland along the river, relying on the river to pan for gold, and the most powerful of them is undoubtedly the Jiangnan Qijia.

Seven families hired slaves and retired guards with nearly 6,000 soldiers, and many rivers were in control, and there were as many as 30,000 slaves alone.

The second was North Korea, with 5,000 soldiers and 20,000 slaves.

Later, it was the Manraka Alliance, with more than 2,000 soldiers and more than 20,000 slaves.

The three of them controlled the river and some of the discovered mines, and were able to mine tens of thousands of taels of gold every year.

However, not all of this gold can reach them, because they need to go to the Ma Glade to buy "anti-malarial powder" and food from the Ming naval compound in the Ma Glade.

At sea, except for the Ming Navy, which has the strength to transport hundreds of thousands of stone grain from the north in one go, no country dares to say that it can transport more than 100,000 stone grain from the sea.

As for the "antimalarial powder", it is the only medicinal herb that can cure malaria, but one serving costs a tael of gold.

For ordinary soldiers, when they come to such a distant place, their annual income is only three taels of gold, and even if they are military attachés, it is only seven or eight taels, so it is not possible not to be greedy, let alone food.

The Persian and Western guards stationed in Kurumus of the Ming Dynasty bought grain from Timur all year round, and then sold it to various forces in the hemp forest at three times the price.

500 wen and one stone of corn, as soon as they sell it, it is always five per stone, the key is not to buy it, if you don't buy it, you won't have to eat the grain.

For the parties with tens of thousands of slaves under their command, they did not dare to indulge the slaves to hunt, and if they ran away, there would be no place to cry, so they could only buy food at a high price.

Two catties of gruel a day, plus some dried fish and miscellaneous vegetables, was the slave's food for a day.

What they have to pay is to soak in water for at least five hours a day to pan for gold.

Practices similar to those of North Korean military attachés were not uncommon, and even the Ming army had a source of extra money, such as escorting grain.

With the hundreds of thousands of stone grains escorted in every year, they could harvest thirty or forty thousand taels of gold, and finally divide the gold equally, and ordinary soldiers could earn five or six more additional incomes, and military attachés could earn more.

For this phenomenon of extraneous money, similar to Yang Zhan and Chen Xuan, they also turn a blind eye, as long as it does not involve military secrets, the occasional extraneous extraneous will not be dealt with by military law.

With the passage of time, the scope of activities of the tripartite gold mining forces in Kunlun Continent has become larger and larger, and the gold they have brought back has also increased.

As the largest source of tariffs in the Ming Dynasty, the Manraka Strait is undoubtedly a fat gap for the Manraka Thousand Households stationed here.

There are tens of thousands of merchant ships passing through here every year, and there are many places to make profits.

Even if each ship bribes more than a dozen yuan, there will be thousands of yuan in income in a year, not to mention that no businessman will bribe people with such a small amount of money.

As early as the end of the second voyage to the West, a phrase spread among the navy and the Nanyang army.

"Manrakari has worked for three years, and a fool can return ...... clothes"

This sentence is not bad at all, because from what Wang Erhu is seeing at the moment, this is indeed the case.

He watched as his chief flag officer took a heavy bag of money from the merchant opposite, weighed it, inspected the cargo on board, collected the normal taxes, and then returned to the warship and let the merchant ship go.

"Wang Wu, the five of you come over and give the money to the people below you to divide it!"

Liu Yu, the chief flag officer, shouted, and at the same time opened the heavy money bag, took out a hanging of money from it, and threw the other one to Wang Erhu's cousin Wang Wu.

"It's always the same!"

Wang Wu was short and strong, with some dark skin, and when he got the money, he grinned and showed big white teeth.

Liu Yu, the chief flag officer, nodded when he heard this, then weighed the money in his hand, put the usual money of the bribe into his arms, and took the other bag of tax silver back to his ship.

Soon, the consistent money in the bag was divided between the five small flag officers and the two hundred wen, and after they left one hundred wen, they divided the remaining one hundred wen in their hands to the nine brothers below.

Each person doesn't share much, only eleven Wen, but the number is frequent, and there are always seven or eight ships in a day.

Wang Wu put Wang Erhu at the end of the penny, so that Wang Erhu got 12 Wen.

"Brother, I'm ......"

"Shut your mouth and pretend."

Wang Erhu was a little flustered, Wang Hu shouted, and then pulled Wang Erhu to the stern of the boat to patrol.

"Brother, isn't it a violation of military law to do this?"

"Hey, we didn't ask them, they took the initiative to give it, why don't you accept it?"

Wang Erhu's words were very immature, and Wang Wu sneered after hearing this: "Anyway, as long as we ensure that the tax money is more and more every year, we will have nothing to do here." ”

"Stuff you into the Manraga Thousand Households, I didn't spend much effort, you kid do a good job, don't go to Fireworks Lane with them when you go ashore, save three years of military salary and this, and you don't have to go back to your hometown when you go back to Quanzhou, just buy a yard in Fuzhi, and then buy more than a dozen acres of land."

Wang Wu's voice fell and patted him: "Don't worry, it's not just us who eats the money, but also the ones above." ”

"Of course, don't say these words, you will kill your head if you spread it."

After explaining everything, Wang Wu took Wang Erhu to continue to get acquainted with the other small flag officials in the general banner.

An hour later, they saw a merchant ship again, and this time the money was still two, and the chief flag officer still divided the consistency, leaving the consistencies for everyone.

Two dollars, which seems to be the minimum bribe amount for navigating the Manraka Strait.

For these maritime merchants, who have tens of millions of goods on board, what they feel sorry for is never this bribe, but the tax and silver collected by the customs......

"Yes, this year's tariffs are much higher than last year."

"It should be because of the gold rush in Kunlunzhou."

In the sound of the waves, in the Yamen of Palembang City, where the old port consolation office was located, Cui Jun, who was the governor of the navy, sat in the main seat, and below was Shi Jinqing, who had served as the consolation envoy of the old port for two years.

Liang Daoming has already been given a rank to Shi, and before Zhishi, he got a hereditary rank of General Zhengsanpin Zhaoyong, which can at least ensure that ten generations of his direct family will not be starved to death.

Shi Jinqing's ambition is greater than Liang Daoming's, he wants more, so he needs to pay more.

In the past few years, under the management of officials sent by the Ming Dynasty, he has managed the old port in an orderly manner, and the tariffs have increased day by day.

Just like now, the document handed over to Cui Jun by his hand is the best proof.

[Tariff: 8,672 taels of gold, 75,627 cents of silver, 2 cents of silver, 124,327 cents of 5 cents, 3 cents and 2 cents]

[Tian Fu: 546,324 stone 53 catties]

[Mining tax: 26,427 taels of gold, 5,600 ...... of silver]

After the total of customs duties, land taxes, mining taxes, commercial taxes and other taxes, what was placed in front of Cui Jun was nearly 2 million yuan of taxes after the discount.

Such a tax amount is very satisfactory to military attachés like Cui Jun after seeing it, not to mention the civil officials of the household department.

"How many people and arable land are there in the Old Port, and is there a record here?"

Cui Jun asked Shi Jinqing while flipping through it, and Shi Jinqing nodded and said, "It's recorded." ”

As soon as his words fell, Cui Jun saw the contents of the "Yellow Book" in the old port.

[174,627 households, 796,423 mouths, 2,793,627 acres of paddy fields, 751,488 acres of sloping land......]

"Among these nearly 800,000 people, how many Hankow?"

"About 290,000, and the number of people willing to move south has become smaller and smaller in recent years."

Cui Jun asked, Shi Jinqing replied and explained the reason, and Cui Jun was also clear about this, so he comforted:

"I told His Highness about this, and His Highness said that you don't have to worry about the population, as the population of the Central Plains grows more and more, there will be more and more people migrating."

"You are from Guangdong, you should know the population situation of Guangdong, Fujian, and Zhejiang, and you should also know that not everyone has a nourishing life."

"Although the current land division policy of the imperial court can alleviate some problems, at most ten years, a family of five will be divided into three households, and the land is destined to be insufficient."

"When the time comes, Nanyang will be where they go."

"But before that, we still have to improve all kinds of facilities in Nanyang, such as building roads."

Cui Jun vaguely reminded Shi Jinqing, and Shi Jinqing nodded hurriedly: "Don't worry, Lord Hou, I have confidence in these things, the three mansions of the old port will definitely be able to build cement roads within ten years, and I am also keeping an eye on the water conservancy and sewerage facilities in various cities." ”

"Okay, just have your words." Cui Jun stood up, and when he walked out of the yamen, he said to Shi Jinqing:

"No need to send it, if you encounter a shortage of manpower, tell me, and I will let people do something to those disobedient princely states in the north."

"Thank you, Master Hou, walk slowly,......" Shi Jinqing saluted respectfully, and then watched Cui Jun walk out of the yamen.

Similar to the old port, it is just a microcosm of the great era, and such a microcosm happened to Japan, Uszang, Korea, Sanxuan and Ten Comforts, and the countries of the Indochina Peninsula.

Unlike Korea, Japan's Ashikaga Yoshitsugu did not dare to send troops to Kunlun to pan for gold, because he feared that if he sent his troops to Kunlun, he would be besieged by the guards of the Kanto and Kansai countries.

For this reason, he can only closely cooperate with the will of the Ming Dynasty passed down by Hu Hui, and this is the situation that Zhu Gaoxu needs.

Time passed little by little, and the fifteenth year of Yongle also came as scheduled.

The sound of crackling firecrackers seemed to drive away the gloom of Nanjing, although Zhu Di was happy to hold the Zhengdan court meeting in Beijing at this moment, but the Zhengdan court meeting in Nanjing City did not fall.

"Your Highness, Chitose Chitose Chitose Chitose ......"

"Flat!"

Zhu Gaoxu wore a crown dress that he had not worn for a long time, and walked on the golden platform of the Fengtian Hall with Yugui in his hand, and more than 200 officials above the fifth rank in the hall knelt down and sang, and more than 2,000 civil and military officials in Nanjing outside the hall also knelt down and sang, and got up in the opening of the Honglu Temple.

"Guo Zi, the secretary of the Ministry of Households, there is something to play!"

"Accurate!"

After the crown, Zhu Gaoxu's expression was blurry, making it impossible to see.

"Zhejiang's new policy has been implemented for more than a year, and the population and cultivated land have been clarified."

"After verification, in the past, more than 47 million mu of cultivated land in Zhejiang was actually more than 16 million mu of paddy fields, more than 6 million mu of dry land, and more than 25 million mu of sloping land......"

"In the past, there were more than 1.5 million people in Zhejiang, and after verification, there were 2,964,327 households and 15,89,712 mouths."

With the implementation of the new policy, the situation in Zhejiang has made people more understanding, and among them, cultivated land is the most concerned by Zhu Gaoxu.

He was very curious about why the Ming Dynasty was able to count more than 40 million mu in later generations.

Now it seems that the officials at the bottom are counting the slopes, but the slopes often do not pay taxes because of the barren output, so this kind of data is really useless data for the Ming Dynasty.

"In more than 30 years, the population has increased by more than 5 million, which can really be celebrated."

Zhu Gaoxu spoke slowly, and at the same time continued: "The implementation of the new policy, ten taxes and one tax, and the same is true for Zhejiang. ”

"In addition, this year's new policy will be implemented in Huguang, Guangdong, and Fujian."

"Do you have any objections?"

He explained slowly, but the hall was silent, and no one dared to speak.

Seeing this, Zhu Gaoxu briefly explained some things, and then got up and left Fengtian Palace.

The sound of dispersion sounded behind him, and the same scene took place in Beijing, more than 1,700 miles away.

However, unlike the Yiyan Hall in Nanjing, the temples in Beijing are particularly quarrelsome.

"For example, the number of mouths has exceeded 80 million today, but the cultivated land has decreased by nearly 20 million mu after Zhejiang's new policy, which is not logical!"

The king of Yushi replied with a chiseled reply, but his words were interrupted by Sun Cheng, the left attendant of the household department: "Zhejiang is mostly sloping land and has very little output, so it is better to demarcate it from the category of cultivated land this time." ”

"If Wang Yushi doesn't believe it, he can go to Zhejiang to investigate by himself, and there is nothing wrong with this matter."

A rare thing happened, Sun Cheng, who helped Zhu Gaoxu implement the new policy, actually quarreled with Wang Hui and others he brought out.

Wang Hui and others thought that it was suspicious that there were more than 20 million mu of cultivated land in Zhejiang, but Sun Cheng felt that it was very normal, after all, Zhejiang is also a place with many mountains and few plains, and it is really 40 million mu to see the hell.

"Your Majesty, please go to Zhejiang for verification!"

Wang Hui also lost his temper when he heard this, and immediately asked to go to Zhejiang.

This may be the advantage of the New Deal, that is, no matter how much they scare people, they will really meet when they encounter things, unlike Qingliu, whose mouths have reached thousands of miles away, and their legs are still not moving.

"Let's go check it out."

Sitting on the golden platform, Zhu Di only felt that he liked this kind of atmosphere, anyway, he was not the one who was scolded.

After briefly revealing this matter, Zhu Di began to ask: "How is the promotion of new crops, what is the yield of fertilizer in Songjiang Erfu, have these been studied?" ”

"Back to Your Majesty......" Sun Cheng stood up and continued to say:

"The development of Ryukyu Prefecture is smooth, and the soil and chemical fertilizer of Songjiang Erfu are also successfully used last year.

"Okay, good......" Hearing that the soil fertilizer was really effective, Zhu Di nodded with satisfaction.

"Minister, the Ministry of Rites sacrifices the Qing official Shi Lang Zhong Zhou Ne has something to play!"

Suddenly, an official from the Ministry of Rites walked out, and Zhu Di nodded when he heard this: "Quasi-play!" ”

Seeing Zhu Di's quasi-performance, Zhou Ne immediately stepped forward with a wat board, knelt down and played: "Today's Taiping, Siyi Binfu, Fufeng of the people, please Your Majesty Feng Zen Taishan, carved stone Jigong, and hang it for eternity." ”

Hearing this, many officials knelt down one after another: "Your Majesty's holy virtue and divine merits are up and down, it is appropriate to follow Zhou Ne's request and seal Mount Tai!" ”

"Feng Taishan?" Zhu Di thought about it in his heart, and was a little moved, but suddenly remembered the last person who sealed Zen Taishan, and his face immediately turned dark.

Through the crown, the ministers couldn't see his expression, and could only hear Zhu Di's voice.

"Although there is nothing to do in the world now, there are also floods, droughts, diseases and epidemics."

"Every time I hear about the county playing, I don't think I can't help it, how dare I say that it is a peaceful world."

"Besides, the Bible does not say that it is a Zen canon, and Tang Taizong is not a Zen canon, and Wei Zheng often advises Taizong with the matter of Yao Shun."

"You are like this, don't you want me to live under Tang Taizong, which is very different from Wei Zheng's way of loving the king?"

"Don't mention the matter of sealing Zen again, you should be exhorted by the ancients, and you should not bear the responsibility of the uncle."

Zhu Di rarely crepe, and the ministers looked at each other, thinking that it was not Zhu Di who was sitting on it, but Zhu Gaoxu.

After all, this kind of cultured way of refusing is really not like Zhu Di's character.

"Alright, but there's something important to do?"

Seeing that the ministers were suppressed by himself, Zhu Di was very helpless, he just had a heroic personality, it didn't mean that he was really uneducated, he had at least studied in the main hall for more than ten years.

"Nothing to retreat!"

Seeing that the ministers had nothing to say, Zhu Di simply got up and left the Fengtian Hall in Beijing.

The ministers sang behind him and retreated, and Zhu Di came to the other side to take off his heavy crown clothes and put on light clothes, and at the same time, he couldn't help but say to Wang Yan, who was changing clothes for him:

"How is the construction of Daming Palace?"

"Back to Your Majesty, it is just located in the middle of the two lakes, Kuaixiang has roughly drawn the drawings after site selection, and now it has been sent to Nanjing, just wait for His Royal Highness to improve, and it can be built."

Wang Yan explained, and also introduced:

"Daming Palace covers an area of 4,000 acres, there are lakes and rivers in it, more than 100 palaces, more than 30 large and small courtyards, a total of more than 3,000 pavilions, platforms, buildings, pavilions, corridors, pavilions and other different forms of buildings."

"The construction will start in about March, and the main Daming Hall and Yangxin Hall will be built by the end of the year, and His Royal Highness has earlier passed on the decree to move the antique calligraphy and paintings confiscated in Nanzhili, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi into it for Your Majesty to enjoy."

"Of course, if it's too cheap for you to look up to, you can sell it to finance the treasury."

Wang Yan introduced everything in the future Daming Palace, and Zhu Di bowed his head after hearing this: "Let's all move into the Daming Palace, the treasury doesn't need my funding now." ”

Zhu Di's words made Wang Yan nod, the current treasury is indeed full.

"The affairs of the treasury are put aside for the time being, you ask the second child to see when he will come to Beijing, and ask him what he means, I want to meet the eldest and third child in Beijing to see if he is willing."

"If you want to, give a fatwa, it's okay if you don't want to, after all, his father is old and won't live for many years."

Zhu Di said this deliberately, he knew very well that as long as he wanted to, the second child would definitely help him complete it, so he wanted Zhu Gaoxu to plan and build the Northeast Railway in advance by looking at the eldest and third children, so as to facilitate the transportation of grain from the Northeast to Mobei.

In this way, he may be able to conquer Mobei again in a few years, after all, as far as his judgment is concerned, Alitai is timid and does not dare to rebel, but Mahamu is not.

After a few more years of recuperation, Mahamu will definitely go south to enter the Kou, and even if he does not enter the Kou, he will think of fighting Alitai and making Warat bigger and stronger.

In Zhu Di's opinion, such an idea is absolutely not good, last time he just hurt Mahamu, this time he wants to completely eradicate Mahamu!

(End of chapter)